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Honey bee - division of labour


HONEY BEE - DIVISION OF LABOUR


  • An interesting organisation is observed in a honey bee hive, where a colony of several thousand bees lives.
  • Only one bee in the colony lays eggs. This bee is called the queen bee.
  • All other female bees are worker bees. Their main job is to build the hive, look after the young and feed the queen bee adequately to keep her healthy so that she can lay eggs.
  • A queen bee lays thousands of eggs.
  • The fertilised eggs hatch into females, while the unfertilized eggs give rise to males, called drones.
  • It is the job of the worker bees to maintain the temperature of the hive at around 35ºC to incubate the eggs.